' as close as I ever want to come to a catastrophe'

As John J. Simko, his wife and teenage daughter settled into their seats for the 90-minute flight to Chicago, the airliner taxied toward the runway.

Tower: Shuttle 7138 runway 6, position and hold.

Pilot: Runway 6, position and hold.

Simko, of Whitehall Township, was eager to get in the air for a weekend of Minnesota Vikings football. To save time, he had booked a United Express flight out of Lehigh Valley International Airport rather than go to the Newark or Philadelphia airports.

But the jet was running two hours late.

From his window seat, Simko saw a small plane, a four-seat Cessna, land on the runway ahead and begin to taxi. Its tail number was N736GV.

Tower: Number 6 Golf Victor, turn right at Alpha 4 taxi (garbled).

Cessna pilot: Alpha 4 (garbled).

Tower: Shuttle 7138 (garbled) cleared for takeoff.

As the big jet roared to life and began its takeoff roll down the runway, Simko had no idea that the Cessna had missed its exit onto taxiway Alpha 4 and was still on the runway, directly in front of the accelerating jet.

Cessna pilot: Tower, we passed Alpha 4. Can we get off at the next [taxiway] Bravo?

Tower: (Sounding panicked) No delay. Turn. turn immediately!

Simko felt a jolt as the jet -- now going 138 mph -- braked hard. It veered to the left, snapping him and the 38 other passengers to the right.

"The pilot was revving up speed and we're going down the runway and all of a sudden he slammed on his brakes, we swerved real drastically to the left and I'm looking out the window and I see lights."

What Simko saw was the Cessna, which hadn't had time to exit the runway after missing its first turn.

The air traffic controller, a trainee with a year of experience, believed the Cessna had exited, so he had cleared the jet behind it for takeoff, putting the two planes on a collision course.

"We missed that plane by feet," Simko said. "I have to give kudos to the pilot. He did a great job avoiding the catastrophe. If we would have hit that, it would have been bad. That small plane would have been in bad shape.

The heads of the local chapter and the national air traffic controllers union said the trainee in the tower erred in clearing the jet for takeoff without first ensuring that the Cessna had left the runway.

But they said the near-collision illustrates what they have been saying for years: There are too many trainees on duty at many of the nation's airports.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident and has begun interviewing the LVIA controllers who were on duty Friday night.

The United Express pilot said he missed the Cessna by about 10 feet. Neither aircraft was damaged, and no one was hurt. An NTSB report is not expected for several months.

On Thursday, a congressional subcommittee examining runway safety is expected to discuss what happened.

As for the Simkos, they flew out of Philadelphia on Saturday with plenty of time to make Sunday's kickoff. The Vikings beat the Carolina Panthers, 20-10.

darryl.isherwood@mcall.com

610-820-6533

Listen to a portion of the radio transmissions among the controller, ground control and the pilots of the Cessna and the United Express jet.